March 17, 2015 (PITTSBURGH, PA). Early Music America has named its annual award winners for 2015. Shulamit Kleinerman, newly appointed co-director of SFEMS’s Music Discovery Workshop and Youth Collegium, is the 2015 recipient of the Laurette Goldberg Award for lifetime achievement in early music outreach.

EMA’s Goldberg Award recognizes outstanding achievement in outreach and/or educational projects for children or adults by ensembles and individual artists. The Award is named for Laurette Goldberg (1932–2005), teacher, performer, author and founder of musical enterprises in the San Francisco Bay Area, including MusicSources, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and the Cazadero Baroque Music Camp, which became the SFEMS Summer Baroque Workshop in 1980. Laurette was also a board member of SFEMS during its early years and a former vice-president of the Society.

As the founder and director of Seattle Historical Arts for Kids, Shulamit Kleinerman unites her musical specialties with her longtime commitment to youth education. In ten years, SHAK has grown from a series of hands-on summer arts camps for children to a year-round calendar of workshops and performances in early music and theater for students aged 6–18.

An annual theatrical performance, presented by the Early Music Guild of Seattle, puts children and teens onstage to recreate masterworks from Shakespeare plays to Handel opera to medieval miracle stories, each with period song, dance, and drama, in period costume and accompanied by early-music professionals. A year-round Early Music Youth Academy introduces instrumental students to music from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, along with instruments such as the viola da gamba, rebec, vielle, and medieval harp.

Shula maintains a full violin studio for children and co-teaches two middle-school-aged viola da gamba students. She also serves as the Youth Outreach Program Coordinator at the Early Music Guild of Seattle, helping bring historical music programming to Seattle’s most underserved students in their schools. She has directed the theater project at the SFEMS Music Discovery Workshop for children since 2012, and as noted above was chosen last year to serve as co-director of the program.

Shulamit, along with Early Music America’s other winners, will be honored during the Boston Early Music Festival at EMA’s Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony, taking place on Friday, June 12, 4:00 p.m. at First Church, Boston.

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http://sfems.org/?feed=rss2&p=58010All vol, all vol!http://sfems.org/?p=5730
http://sfems.org/?p=5730#commentsSun, 15 Mar 2015 04:29:57 +0000http://sfems.org/?p=5730On Saturday, April 25, the San Francisco Early Music Society presents its spring Medieval & Renaissance Workshop Collegium, “All vol, all vol!” for voices, recorders, viols, harps, sackbuts, dulcians and all manner of early instruments. This all-day workshop will focus on German songs and devotional music as well as more rustic fare. Featured will be works from the Glogauer Liederbuch, with its unique liturgical chant settings, and songs by Ludwig Senfl, both moral and comic.

The Glogauer Liederbuch (ca. 1480) is a wonderful collection of both sacred and secular music, including both texted and purely instrumental works, bridging the gap between late medieval and Renaissance compositional styles. It is the oldest surviving set of partbooks and an important source of 15th-century music. Thought to have been destroyed during the Second World War, it was re-discovered in 1977 in the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków, where it still resides.

Senfl, ca. 1510

Ludwig Senfl (ca. 1486–1542/3) was a Swiss composer and perhaps the most famous pupil of Heinrich Isaac. He was music director to the court of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and an influential figure in introducing and developing the Franco-Flemish polyphonic style in Germany.

Led by this summer’s MedRen workshop director, Adam Knight Gilbert, the workshop will run from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Hillside Community Church, 1422 Navellier Street, El Cerrito. Lunch is potluck. Coffee and tea will be provided.

The workshop is open to all voices and early instruments. ALMOST all the music will be texted. Adam promises to share with you that special, secret, Glogauer Phrygian cadence! Please spend the day with us making glorious music. Workshop pitch will be A=440. Bring your instruments, music stands and pencils.

A good time will be had by all.

This collegium day raises scholarship funds to help SFEMS pay the tuition of participants who could not otherwise afford to attend the summer Medieval & Renaissance Workshop. Adam is generously donating his services toward this purpose.

]]>http://sfems.org/?feed=rss2&p=57300Resonance of Salzburghttp://sfems.org/?p=5561
http://sfems.org/?p=5561#commentsMon, 23 Feb 2015 16:54:17 +0000http://sfems.org/?p=5561When we think of Venice, the names most likely come to mind are Monteverdi, Gabrieli, and other composers associated with the great musical establishment of San Marco. For Leipzig it almost certainly would be Bach, and for Salzburg who else but Mozart? Yet each of those cities had histories richer, deeper and more complex than those names might suggest. Salzburg was fertile ground for great composers generations before its most famous son was born. For our next concert, the weekend of March 27–29, SFEMS presents a new ensemble, Artifice (Cynthia Miller Freivogel and Tekla Cunningham, violins & violas d’amore; Elisabeth Reed, cello and viola da gamba; Daniel Zuluaga, lute, guitar & theorbo, and Katherine Heater, harpsichord), who will explore some of the great music produced in the late 17th and early 18th centuries by a trio of Salzburg’s great composers: Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644–1704), Johann Joseph Vilsmayr (1663–1722), and Georg Muffat (1653–1704). In the following notes, Cynthia Freivogel discusses the music on their program, with special emphasis on scordatura, the alternate tunings of the violin that produced distinctive patterns of resonance and were especially used to great expressive advantage by H.I.F. Biber.

* * *

My violin is having a birthday. She is turning 300. “Salzburg, 1715” reads the label. A few years ago, in a shop in Switzerland, I came across the Vilsmayr manuscript solo Partitas. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that, not only were they the same date and place as the label in my violin, but they were technically advanced and musically interesting pieces. This program was inspired by the idiosyncratic title page which starts with “Artificiosus Concentus Pro Camera, distributus in Sex Partes,” immediately evoking for me the connection to the Harmonia artificioso-ariosa set of works by Biber. In my opinion, scordatura has always been at the heart of understanding performance practice on the violin in the 17th century, and I think the subtle colors and changes in sonority is only really possible to present in live performance. The opportunity to perform Partita VII for two d’amores on the same program only deepens that experience, and in this program there is only one work in standard tuning.

Phoebe Nobes, who has published several volumes of important solo violin music from before 1750 including the Vilsmayr manuscript, writes in her preface to the Vilsmayr that they “combine the Corellian floridity of ornamentation and elegance of French Baroque dance within the virtuoso idiom of the Austro-German school of violinists led by Biber and Schmelzer.” Not much is known about Vilsmayr, except that he took lessons with Biber and was a court violinist in the Salzburg Hofkapelle from 1689–1722. We can not be sure that he ever made a trip to France or Italy, but Muffat was at the Salzburg court until 1690, and Vilsmayr clearly is imitating the compositional ideal of marrying the Roman and Lullian styles of Armonico tributo (1682), hence the appearance of Muffat on tonight’s program. Ultimately, the lyrical little arias and flamboyant opening flourishes never really escape Biber’s spirit. Each partita is in a unique scordatura, exploring the range of possibilities in the sonority of the solo violin.

Compared to the set of Rosary Sonatas by his teacher, Vilsmayr seems to have coopted Biber’s usage of certain specific scordaturas of the violin without quite so much intellectual and theological contemplation. Like Partita V in the Harmonia artificioso-ariosa, Vlismayr’s Partita V requires the violin E string to be tuned down a whole step to D. Biber also uses this tuning in the Crucifixion Sonata from his Rosary set. In this mis-tuning of the violin, the D string is doubled. Essentially, you have created a sympathetic string, so any time D is played it is reinforced by the two strings ringing together. In G minor, it makes both the tonic (g minor chord) and the dominant (D major chord) extremely resonant. Vilsmayr also uses this same tuning for Partita II, which is in Bb major. But in that case, he is doubling the third of the Bb major chord. This is much more problematic for intonation with no particular advantages of which I am yet aware.

I played all of the Rosary Sonatas before I had encountered any real practical experience with the viola d’amore, but, of course, Biber had obviously not. In fact many of his tunings that were more difficult for me became very clear after some experience on the other instrument. Playing some of the Mystery Sonatas is actually sort of like playing on part of a d’amore depending on where the thirds and fourths are prescribed. For example, for the Crown of Thorns Sonata from the Sorrowful Mysteries, the violin is tuned D F Bb D. It had always seemed to me to be the most wrenching on the violin with so much tension having tuned the G string up a whole fifth. And, with a fourth and a third in the middle of the violin the Gigue and Doubles in that sonata are, well, thorny. Suspiciously similar is the experience of playing the gigue in Partita VII from the ariosa set. In a less extreme example, the fourth on the top of the instrument in the first half of the program feels very much like playing on the d’amore where there is often a fourth on the top.

It seems fairly certain that during the 17th century in Germany and Austria the d’amore did not yet have the sympathetic strings that run under the bridge. In any case, the tunings themselves created much of this resonance. If you tune the d’amore in C minor, as Biber indicates very clearly in his tablature, you have three C strings and two G strings with an Eb in the middle. It makes C minor very open and actually loud, and as you go further around the circle of fifths away inevitably, the tone color is much more mysterious.

For the beautiful Ciaccona from the 3rd Partita at the close of the program, the violins are both tuned A E A E. Vilsmayr does not borrow this tuning, which is too bad in my opinion. Although simple, for me it has all of the advantages of playing in a pure temperament like quarter comma mean tone. You can make certain intervals actually perfect and so incredibly resonant and when you move away tonally from where that can happen, the contrast is stunning.

SFEMS presents Artifice on Friday, March 27, 8:00 p.m., at First Lutheran Church of Palo Alto; Saturday, March 28, 7:30 p.m., at St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Berkeley; and Sunday, March 29, 4:00 p.m. at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in San Francisco. Order tickets online or call the SFEMS box office at 510-528-1725.

]]>http://sfems.org/?feed=rss2&p=55610Dan Laurin to Perform with Ensemble Mirablehttp://sfems.org/?p=5144
http://sfems.org/?p=5144#commentsTue, 24 Feb 2015 00:53:22 +0000http://sfems.org/?p=5144Due to unforeseen circumstances, Marion Verbruggen has decided to withdraw from her scheduled performances with Ensemble Mirable the weekend of April 10–12, 2015. The Ensemble is thrilled that Dan Laurin is available to take her place. SFEMS has presented the distinguished Swedish recorder virtuoso on our concert series before as a solo artist, and we are delighted to welcome him back.

Dan Laurin certainly ranks among the greatest recorder players active anywhere in the world today. Laurin’s formidable technique (he is especially admired for his ability to produce a wide range of tone colors and dynamics) is matched by a distinctive interpretive style, combining thoughtful musical structure with highly wrought ornamentation and a sometimes wild sense of fantasy. His facility at improvisation evokes jazz greats like Charlie Parker, while honoring the aesthetics of 17th- and 18th-century music.

He has been a prolific recording artist and performer, covering the recorder’s historical repertory, from the major sonatas and concertos of Handel, Vivaldi, and Telemann (including two recently-discovered Telemann sonatinas) to contemporary music, both 20th-century classics of recorder literature and newly commissioned works, among them a half-dozen concertos. Special mention should be made of his 9-CD set of the complete Der Fluyten Lust-hof, Jacob van Eyck’s monumental, mid 17th-century collection, which remains the largest work in European history ever written for a wind instrument. Laurin’s much-praised recording was itself a landmark and a unique accomplishment.

Laurin also had a long and fruitful collaboration with the late, legendary Australian instrument maker Frederick Morgan, to replicate historical recorders of various craftsmen from different eras. Among these was a special instrument designed to perform Der Fluyten Lust-hof.

A member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, he has been honored with many awards for his recordings and performances, including a GRAMMY®, the Society of Swedish Composers’ prize for the best interpretation of contemporary Swedish music, and the Litteris et Artibus medal from the King of Sweden.

Laurin is also an active teacher, holding professorships at The Carl Nielsen Academy of Music, Odense; The Conservatory of Music in Gothenburg, Sweden; and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen. Recently, he was appointed to positions at Stockholm’s Royal College of Music and at Trinity College in London. He researches and lectures on many areas of interpretation, music aesthetics, recorder acoustics, sound techniques, and performance issues. Laurin has inspired and trained some of the leading young recorder virtuosi in Europe and beyond. As a young man he reinvented the recorder as a vehicle of the highest artistic expression, and his playing continues to delight, challenge and enthrall audiences and fellow-musicians across the world.

]]>http://sfems.org/?feed=rss2&p=51440Macromusichttp://sfems.org/?p=5511
http://sfems.org/?p=5511#commentsMon, 23 Feb 2015 16:52:12 +0000http://sfems.org/?p=5511On Saturday, March 28, the South Bay Recorder Society presents its spring workshop, “Macromusic,” directed by Glen Shannon. The workshop runs from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and will be held at First Congregational Church of San Jose, 1980 Hamilton Avenue (corner of Leigh), in San Jose.

Playing in a large group puts different demands on us than playing one to a part, the main one being the ability to set our egos aside. This workshop will focus on being part of a sound greater than our individual selves, while enjoying some excellent contemporary repertoire out of Germany, England, and the US. Some pieces will have many parts, others fewer parts, but all will ask us to play together as one ensemble. In the morning we’ll start by getting reacquainted with our collective musical senses, playing some old and new favorites (bring your crumhorns!), and by afternoon we’ll be giving ourselves up to the greater sound. For the larger pieces, big basses, viols and other low instruments are especially welcome for a hearty foundation.

Workshop participants may choose between all-day (9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.) for $45 in advance or $50 at the door, or half-day sessions, (9:00 a.m.–noon or 1:00–4:00 p.m.), for $25 advance, $30 door. Please bring your instruments, music stand, and your lunch. Hot and cold beverages and snacks will be provided during breaks.

Glen Shannon has been playing recorder since everybody learned it in 3rd grade. His love of straightforward, approachable music for the recorder has garnered him several prizes in national composition contests since 1997. He publishes his music under his own name at www.glenshannonmusic.com, and has also had works published by Moeck Verlag, PRB Productions, and the American Recorder Society. His works have also appeared in the UK magazine Recorder, and the Dutch-language magazine Blokfluitist in Belgium and the Netherlands. He is currently working on a new commission from two members of the Flanders Recorder Quartet, to use in their “Air-Force” workshops in the UK and Europe. Performances of some of his works can be found online at www.youtube.com/glenshannon. Glen is active in the national ARS as editor of the Members’ Library Editions, a series introducing new recorder music to the worldwide membership.

]]>http://sfems.org/?feed=rss2&p=55110An Interview with Houston’s Birgitt van Wijkhttp://sfems.org/?p=5567
http://sfems.org/?p=5567#commentsFri, 13 Feb 2015 03:48:55 +0000http://sfems.org/?p=5567Birgitt van Wijk is Board President of Houston’s Ars Lyrica, the vocal instrumental group that made its regional debut at the Berkeley Festival last June, as well as a member of Early Music America’s Board of Directors. Recently, she was interviewed by St.John Flynn for Houston Public Media’s Arts & Culture program. An amateur in the truest, most positive meaning of that word, she recounts how she became involved in the early music scene and speaks passionately about the appeal of early music, especially the intimacy of the art, compared to music in the 19th century and beyond. She also discusses the important roles played by service organizations, including SFEMS, as well as the founding of both the Boston Early Music Festival and our Berkeley Festival, mentioning in particular Robert Cole’s contributions.

]]>http://sfems.org/?feed=rss2&p=55670Recorder Classes in March and Aprilhttp://sfems.org/?p=5597
http://sfems.org/?p=5597#commentsFri, 13 Feb 2015 03:30:16 +0000http://sfems.org/?p=5597Letitia Berlin is offering two classes for recorder players in March and April.

The first is a class on J.S. Bach’s monumental Art of Fugue. This class for advanced recorder players will use Tish’s own transcriptions of works from Bach’s great collection of fugues based on a single theme. Bach’s variety of invention is endless, as you will discover during our in-depth exploration of several of these fugues. The class is offered on both Wednesday evenings and Thursday mornings. Section A will meet Wednesdays, March 4 through April 15 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. Section B meets Thursdays, March 5 through April 16, 10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. Cost for the 7-session class will be $160.

The second is a recorder ensemble class, which meets Wednesday afternoons, from 3:30 to 4:15 p.m. This is an ongoing class for recorder players who want to work on ensemble skills and technique with a small group, in a friendly but challenging environment. The class repertoire will cover everything from medieval and Renaissance through baroque, Romantic, and contemporary music. Technique exercises to limber the fingers, tongue and breathing/blowing muscles will be included. The level of the group will be determined by the people who sign up. Registrants will be informed of acceptance and level before start of class. The first session of seven classes starts on March 4. Tuition is also $160.

Both classes will be held at Tish’s house, near the corner of Pierce and Washington in Albany.

To register or for more information, please call Tish at 510-559-4670 (510-882-1169 cell) or email her at tishberlin@sbcglobal.net.

]]>http://sfems.org/?feed=rss2&p=55970Old Music for Young Earshttp://sfems.org/?p=5305
http://sfems.org/?p=5305#commentsThu, 29 Jan 2015 02:24:37 +0000http://sfems.org/?p=5305Thoughts on the Music Discovery Workshop at a New Juncture

Enrollment is now openfor Music Discovery 2015! Under the leadership of new Co-Directors Yuko Tanaka and Shulamit Kleinerman, the workshop expands this year to welcome singers ages 7 and up and to inaugurate a Youth Collegium for able teen musicians. Nationwide, SFEMS’ Music Discovery Workshop is unique, drawing young participants from throughout the Bay Area as well as out of state and as far afield as France. Over the next few months, Yuko and Shula will be sharing their thoughts about the past, present, and future of the workshop. Shula writes:

I was an admirer of the Music Discovery Workshop long before I was asked to join the faculty. At the time when I was beginning the series of children’s summer workshops in Seattle that would later evolve into Seattle Historical Arts for Kids, Tish Berlin was at the beginning of her long, successful stint as Director of MDW, a post she inherited from founder Lee McRae. Writing for Early Music America magazine, I interviewed Tish for an article about early music educational work with children. I remember her describing the sparkle in an elementary-school-aged recorder player’s eyes when he began learning how to improvise over a ground bass. I was delighted to envision a thread of connection running up the West Coast, linking two sets of teachers who understood how naturally early music speaks to children and teens.

Ten years later, both in my own city and in Berkeley since joining the Music Discovery faculty in 2012, I’ve watched more and more kids grow up with early music and related arts as part of their lives. I am more excited than ever about what I see children and teens gaining from early music.

Most obviously, of course, they discover aspects of creative musicianship, such as improvisation, that are missing from mainstream classical music education. Students also are exposed to new musical vocabularies, from medieval modal scales to baroque figured bass, all of which expand a musician’s ears and make for a better player in any style.

More deeply, Music Discovery creates a place where students are part of a community of creators. There’s a sense I often pick up at Music Discovery that some of the kids are finding their people—that they feel a sense of belonging and support here. In society at large, it’s rare enough even to be a consumer of the arts. If we want a world of creative thinkers, of people who know something about the past, about culture and ideas, we need kids who come together to do the arts hands-on. Kids are capable of engaging with really sophisticated material when they have the opportunity. Where else but Music Discovery, in the space of a few days, are they going to experience one-on-a-part chamber music, baroque opera, and centuries-old handicrafts?

It can be empowering for young people to discover themselves as carriers of a tradition that is much bigger than they are—to learn about some beautiful kind of music that is not widely known but that they can help keep alive.

What inspires me most of all is that I think historical awareness is a form of multicultural awareness. Most modern Americans, looking at an Italian Renaissance portrait, would likely see it as foreign and inferior: funny clothes, stiff posture. But if you’ve worn clothes like that, carried yourself in that elegant way, read the poetry and played the music that that centuries-dead person may have read and played—all the sorts of things we do at Music Discovery—you instead experience a kind of intimacy with the past. You can imagine other ways of living than your own. Kids and teens are naturals at making this kind of leap, and contacting history in this hands-on way is the best basis for imagining a more flexible, responsive future.

All photos by Amy Luper

]]>http://sfems.org/?feed=rss2&p=53050Registration Open for Summer Workshopshttp://sfems.org/?p=5185
http://sfems.org/?p=5185#commentsSat, 24 Jan 2015 06:11:54 +0000http://sfems.org/?p=5185Registration now is open for the SFEMS 2015 Summer Workshops—six weeks to immerse yourself in six centuries of great music!

St. Albert’s Priory, home to three SFEMS Workshops

Running from June 14 through July 25, the SFEMS workshops are one of the most comprehensive summer early music programs in the United States, led by a faculty of international artists in residence. The Medieval and Renaissance, Baroque, Recorder, and Classical Workshops offer instrumental and vocal master classes, lectures, coached ensembles, and recitals and provide opportunities for musicians and dancers at a variety of levels to improve their ensemble skills, performance techniques, and teaching abilities. Full days of classes are followed by optional evening events, including faculty concerts and lecture-demonstrations, plus more light-hearted activities, from sherry hour to jam sessions and dancing to outrageous spoofs of early music.

The Music Discovery Workshop and Youth Collegium are a special, week-long workshop for children and youth with all levels of musical experience, ages 7–18.

There will be a number of changes this year, most notably in our venues. Because of ongoing construction at Sonoma State University, both the Baroque and Medieval-Renaissance workshops are moving, at least for this summer. Baroque will return to Dominican University, fondly remembered by many who have attended our summer workshops in the past. Med-Ren will join our Classical and Recorder Workshops at St. Albert’s Priory in Oakland. Both of these venues are significantly closer to the central Bay Area than Sonoma, and St. Albert’s is easily accessible by public transportation—a short walk from the Rockridge BART station.

The Music Discovery Workshop and Youth Collegium will remain at the School of the Madeleine in north Berkeley, but popular faculty members Shulamit Kleinerman and Yuko Tanaka will be the new co-directors, succeeding our retiring Tish Berlin. Also new this year is a Youth Collegium, a parallel program for middle- and high-school singers and musicians who want to explore early music in greater depth.

Brochures for the 2015 Summer Workshops will be mailed soon. Meanwhile, please check the extended descriptions of each workshop on our website, including faculty biographies. Following are capsule summaries:

This year our theme explores music inspired by the schisms, heresies and Church councils of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The Great Schism in the 14th century and the Council of Constance inspired and reformed music of the ars subtilior. The Councils of Basel and Florence invoked Guillaume Dufay to compose some of his greatest music. The followers of Savonarola sang devotional songs as they lit the Bonfire of the Vanities. The Humanist movement, the Reformation and the Council of Trent set their indelible stamp of sacred music and on how we set text to music.

But wait! Lest you think we will spend all our time on sacred music, we will pay special attention to the rustic and erotic songs that filled the tongues of the followers of the Devotio moderna and the Protestant Reformation. From the lowest and bawdiest to the highest devotional song, all will be fair game. So dust off your Books of Hours, bring out your torches, and help us set fire to some exciting music, both sacred and secular!

Baroque WorkshopJune 21–27
Dominican University of California, San Rafael
“Fertile Ground—Lutheran Music from Michael Praetorius to J.S. Bach”

Baroque Workshop Concerto Night

Lutheran music composition during the baroque period embraced the Italian influences introduced by composers such as Claudio Monteverdi and Alessandro Grandi. It blended the Italianate style with German texts and the structure inherent in the language and saw the creation of a plethora of stunning works. The sacred concertos of Johann Hermann Schein and Heinrich Schütz are choice examples of music that provides fertile ground for later Lutheran composers, for example, G.P. Telemann and J.S. Bach. Sacred concertos and cantatas, as well as instrumental works for small chamber ensemble, will figure prominently throughout the week of music–making.

This year’s workshop traces a path through these musical pastures, exploring well-known and lesser-known gems of the baroque period by composers such as Michael Praetorius, Johann Hermann Schein, Samuel Scheidt, Heinrich Schütz, Georg Philipp Telemann, and J.S. Bach.

The Classical Workshop is America’s only workshop dedicated to late 18th-century performance practice. We meet for one week in June to explore string chamber music of the Classical era. Morning and afternoon coaching sessions by the New Esterházy Quartet are followed each evening by informal performances of the day’s repertoire. Private instruction and colloquia on bowing and fingering complement our program. The workshop invites string players of all ages and abilities. Pre-formed ensembles are welcome too.

Directed by recorder players Rotem Gilbert and Hanneke van Proosdij, the SFEMS Recorder Workshops are located in the intimate setting of St. Albert’s Priory on the border of Oakland and Berkeley, California. These workshops feature every aspect of music making for the recorder, including technique classes, Renaissance recorder consort, medieval to contemporary music and consort music. Featuring small class sizes and an international faculty, they invite intermediate to advanced recorder players to sign up for one or both weeks. Each week concludes with a spectacular performance of all workshop participants in the Recorder Orchestra at St. Albert’s beautiful chapel. Evening events include faculty concerts, lecture demonstrations and a focused Wednesday mini-workshop.

Enjoy daily Feldenkrais® movement classes, recorder master classes and a supportive and social environment in the inspiring setting of St. Albert’s Priory.

Both weeks of the Recorder Workshop typically fill up before April 30, so to be able to enroll, please register as early as possible.

Music Discovery Workshop: For younger kids looking for a fun, artistic introduction to the Renaissance, we again present the Music Discovery Workshop—no prior musical training needed. Anyone ages 7–13 with an interest in arts and music of the past is welcome as we bring the Italian Renaissance to life in song, instrumental music, art, dance, and drama. This year, we will explore the life of Galileo Galilei, the famous scientist . . . did you know he played the lute and was the son of a renowned music theorist? Come join us as we reenact the lively happenings in the Galilei household, from performances of Renais­sance music to dreams about the stars above—and the drama of being at the center of a scientific inquisition. Activities include singing, dancing, drama, and crafts; instrumental group classes for harpsichord (pianists welcome), recorder, and strings; early music chamber ensembles, for those with one or more years of experience; and a final concert featuring dancing, and chamber music from the 15th and 16th centuries, plus a play.

New this year is a Youth Collegium, a parallel program for middle- and high-school singers and musicians (rising 7th graders and up) who want to know early music in greater depth. Enjoy a week exploring the vibrant Italian baroque style. We’ll immerse ourselves in Corelli’s spirited concerti grossi, characterized by their energy and virtuosity. Come find out why they are still so popular after over 300 years! Course offerings include master classes, instrumental and vocal ensembles, theory and musicianship classes, and an all-Collegium band, with elective options in dance, drama, and art.

This Summer’s VenuesDominican University of California, located in San Rafael along the northeast coast of San Francisco Bay, hosts the Baroque Workshop. This lush campus is an ideal retreat and also an easy commute for local participants from San Francisco and the East Bay. The dorms feature comfortable rooms with twin beds, arranged in two-room suites with private baths and gorgeous views of rolling hills and sunny skies. There are hiking trails into the oak studded hills, and the campus is within an hour’s drive of the coast redwood parks, Point Reyes National Seashore, and the famous wineries of Napa and Sonoma Counties.

St. Albert’s Priory in Oakland, just two blocks from rapid transit access to the San Francisco Bay Area, hosts the Medieval & Renaissance, Classical, and Recorder Workshops. Single dorm rooms overlook a serene courtyard garden. The beautiful chapel is used for performances and orchestra rehearsals. The Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland boasts a great diversity of fine restaurants and shopping, all within convenient walking distance.

School of the Madeleine, a private elementary school located in a quiet residential neighborhood in north Berkeley, hosts the Music Discovery Workshop and Youth Collegium. The school has large classrooms, an inviting, well-secured playground, and ideal performance space.

Dates, Deadlines, and FeesRegister early, as some workshops and classes fill up quickly; tuition also increases after April 30. There are discounts for SFEMS, EMA, and ARS members, so if you are not a member, now is a great time to join. Both academic and continuing education credits are available through Sonoma State University. To register, find instructions on the Registration info page. Please contact the SFEMS Office (sfems@sfems.org or 510-528-1725) to register if you are an EMA or ARS member and not also a SFEMS member. Tuition assistance is available. Visit the Scholarships page for more information.

http://sfems.org/?feed=rss2&p=51850Crawford Young in the Bay Area During Marchhttp://sfems.org/?p=5285
http://sfems.org/?p=5285#commentsFri, 23 Jan 2015 05:22:24 +0000http://sfems.org/?p=5285Crawford Young, well-known Renaissance and medieval lutenist, who teaches at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland, as well as other venues all over the world, will be in the Bay Area staying at the home of Mike Peterson during the month of March. He would like to meet lute players here in our area. Crawford is probably best known to Bay Area audiences for his work with Laurie Monahan, Michael Collver, Shira Kammen, and John Fleagle in the legendary Ensemble PAN (Project Ars Nova).

Crawford will be available for private lessons on the Renaissance and medieval lute as well as any other lute-like instruments. He also would like to work with ensembles. Lessons will cost $75 per hour, but he feels that anyone who is asking for a lesson would benefit greatly from a series of lessons, say one weekly for 3 or 4 weeks. In that vein, he suggests $200 for three 1-hour lessons. Anything beyond that would be $50 an hour. Ensembles of two or more people can get coaching at $100 for a 60–75 min session. This is a great opportunity for lessons with a well-known professional, even a month of intense study. Please contact Mike (mbp11@comcast.net) to discuss and arrange lessons or coaching.

If you would like to meet Crawford, Mike Peterson will host an open house at his home in Pleasanton on Saturday, March 7, from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Please RSVP by email for the address and directions. Mike is looking for a venue for Crawford to perform a house concert, as his Pleasanton home is too small for adequate seating. Anyone willing to host a house concert, please contact Mike, who also would welcome suggestions for other musical activities during Crawford’s stay here.